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Gujarat: Hunger, Disease Rampant in Relief Camps
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| Muslim
woman praying in an Ahmedabad camp.
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By Zafarul-Islam Khan, IOL South Asia Correspondent
New
Delhi, May 21 (IslamOnline): The rising heat on the India-Pakistan
borders has relegated Gujarat to the inside pages of newspapers and
off television screens. Normalcy is limping back in the strife-torn
state. For the seventh day there has been no major incident. Night
curfew is still in vogue in some sensitive areas.
As
for the riot victims, the situation is growing worse every day. Over
160 camps are functioning across the state of Gujarat and at least 47
of these are spread in Gujarat's largest city, Ahmedabad itself. These
camps face severe problems of hunger, disease as well as security.
NGOs and camp organizers have daunting tasks to cope with meager
resources - to ward off the growing pressures from the state
authorities to close down the camps and to keep hunger and disease at
bay from the victims who refuse to return to their original homes for
fear of being attacked again. Authorities provide ration to only the
registered inmates and even the provided five-days-ration is
sufficient for just one day. Unregistered inmates, especially those
who came later due to continuing violence, get no relief.
The
newest problem faced by the inmates is the outbreak of various
contagious diseases. These are caused by the unhygienic conditions
which prevail in all the camps due to lack of sanitation and scarcity
of water. Organizers say that numerous survivors are suffering from
measles, bronchopneumonia, malaria, typhoid, diarrhea and acute
respiratory infections. Most of the inmates refrain from visiting
government hospitals fearing a threat to their lives if they ventured
outside the camps.
Dr.
Haroon Sheikh, a government doctor at Godhra civil hospital, said,
“Patients are not willing to shift to the government hospital. They
are still afraid and refuse to go there. We, however, convince them by
saying that there are Muslim doctors here but they still hesitate to
spend the night at the hospital. So, after taking short term treatment
they go back to the camps. Patients are not even willing to accept
medicines given by the government and they are taking it only from the
camp organizers.”
The
state government has failed to set up a round-the-clock medical
service at the camps. Doctors have warned that if proper action is not
taken at the earliest, diseases like measles and typhoid would reach
epidemic proportions in the camps. Besides, the current summer season
has also given rise to diseases such as diarrhea and gastroenteritis
and many new cases are being continuously reported.
Contagious
diseases apart, almost 95 percent of the riot survivors are now
afflicted with mental disorders. Undoubtedly, the blood-letting in the
state has left a deep imprint on the minds of the victims. Rape,
mutilation and roasting alive of their relatives and friends before
their own eyes has left an everlasting imprint on these victims.
Mental-health professionals report that at present victims in great
numbers are reporting cases of insomnia, post-traumatic stress
disorders, depression and other mental problems. A visit to the relief
camps by a team of psychiatrists revealed that at least nine out of
ten persons in the camps display symptoms of mental disorders.
Though
the spread of diseases is one of the major problems for the camp
inmates, procurement of food is the gravest problem of all. Hunger in
relief camps has reached crisis level. Thousands of people compete for
space in small graveyards, mosques, schools and similar places which
lack space and facilities for such numbers. The population at the
relief camps has been bursting at the seams.
The
state government has so far refused to concede the actual figures of
the inmates as provided by camp organizers. In over 160 relief camps
spread over various districts of Gujarat, over one hundred thousand
survivors are crammed. Gujarat state government’s figures are much
less. For example, according to the latest government survey, there
are 725 inmates at the Vatva relief camp. The organizers, however, put
the figures close to over 1700.
Finding
the government’s surveys to be full of anomalies, the organizers of
at least seven relief camps approached Gujarat high court. The court
ruling compelled the state government to accept the figures given by
the camps. The Vatva relief camp organizers have now decided to follow
suit and approach the high court.
“The
numbers of inmates in this relief camp are close to 1700, but we have
been getting ration for just 700 people. That too has completely
stopped since May 7. We are not getting anything now from the
government to feed these people,” said MK Ajmeri, organizer of the
Vatva Relief Camp.
Earlier,
camp inmates had to make do with just khichdi [a mixture of
rice and lentils]. Recently a camp was closed down in Viramgam town
due to non-availability of government relief material. Unable to
return to their homes the inmates now roam around.
The
so-called monetary compensation to the riot victims being provided by
the Gujarat government is also problematic. The majority has not been
paid any compensation whatsoever. But a few of those who received it
have either died of heart attack or at least received a stroke due to
the measly sums offered.
Babubhai
Abdul Hamid is one such example. He died of a heart attack on May 2 at
the relief camp near Dariakhan Ghummat in Ahmadabad. He had received a
cheque for a mere rupees 5,000 [just over $100] as compensation for
his burnt house and shop.
When
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Shah Alam relief camp in
Ahmadabad, arrangements were hastily made to give the camp at least a
respectable look. Tents were hastily erected and some toilets were
constructed. There were just 20 toilets for 120,000 people who had
taken shelter in this historical shrine. The government had also
announced to distribute rupees 1250 to each riot-hit family as an
immediate relief.
All
refugees in the Hindu relief camp at Kankaria were promptly paid this
amount, but many in Shah Alam camp failed to see this meager amount
coming.
The
Gujarat government had announced that it will pay rupees one hundred
thousand [U.S.$2040] to the nearest kin of every person killed in the
riots. The prime minister also announced a similar amount to be paid
to such victims from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. He promised
during his Gujarat visit to provide rupees fifty thousand [$1020] as
compensation for permanently disabled persons and a similar amount to
people whose houses were completely destroyed, and rupees fifteen
thousand for partially destroyed houses in rural areas.
So
far, there are only a handful of people who have been paid the
promised compensation for their relatives killed by the super
nationalist criminals. People who lost their properties and businesses
too are still awaiting the compensation.
Another
victim, Ismailbhai Jamilbhai, a resident of Vasna, Ahmadabad, who lost
most of his property and household goods when his house in Guptanagar
Housing Colony was looted and damaged by rioters. But he was shattered
to receive a mere rupees 500 [$10] as one time payment for his loss
and damages.
Abdul
Karim R Shelat, coordinator of a relief camp in the largest Muslim
locality Juhapura in Ahmadabad, says that only about 40 per cent of
the total 6,000 riot-affected people staying in the camps in Juhapura
have been compensated.
The
victim who has received the largest sum as relief amount is
Jehanatbibi Muhammad Shah. She has been given rupees 12,700 [$ 259].
Her house was looted and then burnt down. "With no means of
livelihood left I am no better than a beggar. How can I go back to a
home which does not exist and how do I start rebuilding with what I
have got?" asks she.
Though
the government claims that it has paid compensation to the relatives
of 417 families and injury compensation worth rupees 6.1 million in
234 cases, there are no reports or lists of the people who have
received the compensation. In Shah Alam Camp, refuge of the Naroda
Patia victims which was one of the worst massacre sites in Gujarat,
only seven people have been given compensation for their relatives who
were killed.
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| Women admiring
the 45 babies born in the Shah Alam camp in Ahmedabad after
the riots.
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On
the other hand there is discrimination in the payment of compensation
to victims. “Compensation for injured people varies for Muslims and
Hindus. Muslims receive rupees one thousand to two thousand for
injuries while the compensation paid to Hindus ranges between rupees
ten thousand to fifteen thousand,” says an inmate, Mohsin Qadri.
Furthermore, in many instances government officials
have refused paying compensation without physical verification which
is almost impossible in the present cases where whole houses and shops
and business establishments have been looted and burnt down. It is
also being said by government officials that money will be paid only
at the original site of their homes and shops. It is also being said
that compensation will be paid only after the victims have physically
identified their homes and business establishment. Victims are being
asked for "evidence" including electricity or telephone
bills or rent receipts which are impossible to procure in the current
situation when homes stand gutted and people are afraid to venture out
of the relief camps.
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